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Fired police officer sues UO

Documents reveal that some officers kept a crudely titled list of people they don’t like

By Diane Dietz

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Friday, July 11, 2014, page A1

A former University of Oregon police employee is suing the UO for what he claims was retaliation, at least in part for revealing a vulgarly named list of people and things UO officers don’t like.

UO police officers working the graveyard shift compiled and discussed the list of dozens of people they disliked — including Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Eugene civil rights lawyer Lauren Regan — according to documents filed in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

Officers called their list a “bowl of -----,” using a crude term for male genitalia, the UO acknowledged in the lawsuit, which was filed late last year.

The list was kept on the cellphone of UO police officer Eric LeRoy, the UO acknowledged in a filing in May.

The officers who participated in compiling the list felt the people on the list should “eat a bowl of -----,” according to the former UO police officer, James Cleavenger, who in his lawsuit alleges wrongful termination and retaliation.

Cleavenger earned a law degree from the UO and now works as a judicial clerk in Eugene federal court. He alleges that the UO Police Department retaliated against him by firing him from his full-time position in 2011 because he complained about the list and about other aspects of working conditions in the department.

Other people on the officers’ list were then-UO student leader Amelie Rousseau and Ann Aiken, chief U.S. District Court judge in Eugene, Cleavenger’s complaint said.

The list includes figures from the political left such as Bruce Springsteen, Michael Moore and Rob Reiner, and from the right, such as Mel Gibson, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.

Cleavenger alleges that officers on the graveyard shift discussed and added to the list during “many” pre-shift briefings. The UO denied that the number of list-building sessions was “many.”

The UO, however, acknowledged that the “bowl of -----” list exists and that officers made remarks about it.

The UO in its May answer to the complaint denies many of the allegations. The university is seeking to have the case dismissed.

UO Police Chief Carolyn McDermed declined this week to comment on Cleavenger’s firing, saying that the university “does not comment on pending litigation.”

However, in an emailed statement on Wednesday, McDermed said: “Conversations have occurred to reinforce the behavior expectations of everyone in the department.”

She didn’t elaborate on whether any department employees had been reprimanded.

In her email, McDermed also said: “UOPD is like any organization in that it is made of people, and people bring to the workplace different belief systems.

“We demand professionalism and appropriate decorum of our officers and leadership. However, we also acknowledge that people are entitled to their own opinions and belief systems.

“We communicate regularly with employees that the workplace is no place for political opinions and lobbying, and we strive to address those kinds of issues appropriately whenever and wherever they occur.

“UOPD is committed to maintaining a culture that is a complement to the community we serve,” she added. “Our values reflect those of the university, and we hold each and every member of our department to those values and standards of behavior.

“These values are part of the fabric of our department and are not a reaction to any particular accusation,” she wrote.

Political opinions expressed

In an interview Wednesday, Cleavenger said the “bowl of -----” list bothered him because it “doesn’t fit with our community. It’s not Oregon. It’s especially not Eugene.”

Cleavenger said then-shift commander Lt. Brandon Lebrecht initiated and allowed discussion during work hours about who should be on the list.

The UO declined to make Lebrecht or LeRoy available for comment.

Lebrecht since has been promoted within the UO police department to the position of director of professional standards, training and internal affairs, according to the department’s organizational chart.

As shift commander, Lebrecht would express conservative political opinions, including the view that President Obama was “definitely not born in America” and was “secretly Muslim,” Cleavenger said in his complaint.

Although Piercy, Regan, Rousseau and Aiken were on the list, according to Cleavenger, they were not on a copy of the list provided to The Register-Guard by McDermed.

As student body president, Rousseau was involved with the sometimes controversial plan to create an independent UO police department. Today, she lives in Eugene and works in community-supported agriculture.

“The leadership talked about really trying to be a community police force to protect students,” she said. “(The list) is a letdown for the students and for the whole UO community.”

Cleavenger in his lawsuit described UO police employees as making a variety of denigrating comments. UO police referred to a former Occupy Eugene encampment as “District 9,” the title of a popular movie depicting a slumlike place where an extraterrestrial race is forced to live.

The lawsuit’s mention of the “bowl of -----” list was first publicized on the www.uomatters website, produced by UO economics professor Bill Harbaugh.

Reinstatement ordered

In a related matter, meanwhile, an arbitrator on Feb. 14 ordered the UO to reinstate Cleavenger to his UO police job with no loss in seniority and with reimbursement of back pay, according to documents provided to The Register-Guard by Cleavenger. The dollar figure of the back pay award is in negotiation.

The arbitrator, however, approved a three-day suspension and written reprimand against Cleavenger, and he ordered both parties to split the cost of arbitration.

McDermed said The Register-Guard would have to file a public records request with the UO to see the arbitrator’s decision.

Cleavenger, who is representing himself in his lawsuit, graduated from the UO Law School in 2008 and passed the Washington State Bar the next year. He pursued a career in law enforcement since then.

“My father was a police officer, and it’s always been in my blood,” he said.

Cleavenger said he took the public safety job at the UO because it was “a great opportunity to help build from ground zero and create a progressive and welcoming police department.”

The UO police department was created in January 2012 out of the campus public safety operation, and in the years following has hired sworn police officers.

Cleavenger said he graduated from the police academy at the top of his class. He worked paid and unpaid police shifts as a fully sworn officer at the Junction City Police Department and he now is a volunteer reserve police officer with the Coburg Police Department, according to court records.

He’s working as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Michael McShane at the Eugene federal courthouse.

Because of his connections with the courthouse, Cleavenger’s civil case against the UO police department will be heard in coming months by U.S. Judge David Carter of the Central District of California at Santa Ana.